Galesburg will not have an official home for a community center in the near future. Aldermen this week rejected a proposal to have the Boys and Girls Club serve as a home for the center.
The agreement called for $115,000 to go to the club over a 5-year period for capital improvements and salaries.
Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Jeannie Shelton said there was a misunderstanding during negotiations about what the club does. She said the process could have been done differently and been more streamlined.
“If there was a procedure and there was a grant application, and we knew what our expectations were. Not just me getting the e-mail from this person asking me, one city council member getting another e-mail from another. It was just all over the place,” Shelton said.
Shelton also hoped the Boys and Girls Club could still provide some services as a community center, even in an unofficial capacity.
“It has space. (It) has the full sized gym and has the old gym, which is like a community room, where there are meetings being held there now. And then it has a smaller area for small meetings,” Shelton said.
Aldermen voted down the proposal to make the facility a community center, 4-to-3.
The club still might receive some money from the city. Aldermen could consider a proposal at the June 15 meeting to provide $65,100 for improvements. Those improvements could include work on the facility’s furnace, A/C unit, and boiler.
